VW engines in boats

[Seegull]

Does anyone know much about marine VW engines? Any good, or avoid?
Specifically SDI 75/5.

I've not come across them before.

Thanks

 

[Greg2]

Only boat I have seen VW engines in is the Greenline 33 so I think they are not too common, which might mean that maintenance and parts could be a challenge.

 

[westernman]

Only boat I have seen VW engines in is the Greenline 33 so I think they are not too common, which might mean that maintenance and parts could be a challenge.

Surely they are just VW auto engines with a heat exchanger bolted on?

 

[SC35]

Surely they are just VW auto engines with a heat exchanger bolted on?

Basic service parts are still available, and if it runs, it runs.
But if you need more serious parts, you could end up stuck, as VW are no longer doing marine engines, and the service network is almost non-existent.

Mercury Marine still sell some of the larger VW engines.

 

[ChromeDome]

Despite VAG saying they would stop producing diesel engines for VW, you can still buy their 2.0 in new VW vans, Skoda, Seat and Audi (up to the V6 3.0).

By the way, a German court in Schleswig states that

... 9 years after Dieselgate, VAG are still cheating and manipulating the pollution-limiting equipment in cars equipped with the 2-litre diesel engine EA-189.

An engine that is found in millions of cars from VW and Audi, among others. As a consequence of the new judgement, the court in Schleswig has revoked a permit that allowed Volkswagen to fix the problem with software alone.

 

[Keith-i]

There were quite a lot of VW engines fitted to European boats including Arvor. The smaller blocks were known to occasionally have problems with the actuator on the VTG turbo sticking otherwise they seem reasonably reliable. I have a V6 3.0 tdi in my boat and as mentioned above they are basically a marinised version of the road going engine. A lot of the main mechanical parts are therefore still readily available from VW but the marine specific parts are now becoming hard to come by. I have purposely bought a spare exhaust elbow, hoses and other bits before they are entirely out of stock. Barrus/Mercury took over the engines some years ago and can supply some spares still.

 

[Assassin]

Surely they are just VW auto engines with a heat exchanger bolted on?

No, many of the components are uprated abd some are only available to the marinised engine and while some may share the same dimensions between the auto, industrial, and marine engines and the components look the same, they are not and it comes down to different material specifications.
Most base engines these days are designed to be used as all configurations.

I regularly fly a Diamond Twin Star and that is fitted with twin diesel engines, yes diesel engines in a light aircraft and they are Mercedes units, 2.0L and modified for aircraft use; cheap to fuel though and they run on EN 590 which is EU spec road or agricultural diesel.